Viola player Garth Knox’ ECM New Series recording “Saltarello” has shot to the #1 position on Billboard’s Classical Traditional Chart.

On the album, Irish born Knox, who recently played two enthusiastically received concerts in Baltimore and New York, couples works stretching from the 12th century to the present day. Playing fiddle, viola and viola d’amore, accompanied by cellist Agnès Vesterman and percussionist Sylvain Lemêtre, Knox presents his own works alongside music by Hildegard von Bingen; he juxtaposes the Renaissance sounds of John Dowland against pieces by Kaija Saariaho that make subtle use of electronics, and sets arrangements of traditional melodies and folk dance movements against Vivaldi’s D minor Viola d’amore Concerto – a sensuous survey of 1000 years of musical events.

Together with Agnès Vesterman Garth Knox has released the album “D’Amore” on ECM New Series in 2006. He has also been heard on ECM recordings by Frode Haltli and the Arditti Quartet.